Prescriptive reservoir asset management

ABSTRACT

A method of projection a production characteristic includes receiving down well video image data depicting multiphase flow within the well, determining a flow rate data of at least one phase of the multiphase flow based on the down well video image data, and projecting the production characteristic based at least in part on the determined flow rate using a well performance model.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent ApplicationNo. 61/869,892, filed on 26 Aug. 2013 and having the same title.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

This disclosure, in general, relates to systems and methods forprescriptive reservoir asset management.

BACKGROUND

An expanding global economy has yielded ever-increasing demand forenergy. In particular, demand for hydrocarbon fuel sources is growing,as are prices for oil and natural gas. As such, there is an increasedinterest in finding new sources of hydrocarbons, and an increased driveto improve production from existing hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Recent changes in technology led to drilling in previously inaccessiblereservoir structures. In particular, oil and gas shale formations,previously considered unproductive, are now being tapped for hydrocarbonproduction. Management of production within such structures tends to bemore challenging than typical production structures. Such challenges canlead to an increased cost of production and difficulties in predictingproduction levels.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure may be better understood, and its numerousfeatures and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art byreferencing the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 includes an illustration of an exemplary well to access aproduction structure.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary well bore within a production structure.

FIG. 3, FIG. 4, and FIG. 5 include illustrations of exemplary multiphaseflow within a well bore.

FIG. 6 includes a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method formanaging production of reservoir assets.

FIG. 7 includes a flow diagram illustrating an exemplary method forperforming predictive analysis.

FIG. 8 includes an illustration of an exemplary system for processingunstructured data.

FIG. 9 includes a block flow diagram illustrating an exemplary methodfor processing unstructured data.

FIG. 10 includes an illustration of an exemplar system for processingunstructured data.

FIG. 11 includes a block flow diagram illustrating an exemplary methodfor processing unstructured data.

FIG. 12 includes an illustration of a flow diagram of an exemplaryprocess.

FIG. 13 includes a graph illustration of an exemplary relationshipbetween a performance indicator and time.

FIG. 14 includes a graph illustration of exemplary relationships betweenthe value of influencers and time.

FIG. 15 includes a graph illustration of exemplary relationships betweentime and the contribution of an influencer to the value of a performanceindicator.

FIG. 16 includes a graph illustration of exemplary changes to the valueof an influencer projected over time.

FIG. 17 includes an illustration of an exemplary process for predictivedecision making.

FIG. 18 and FIG. 19 include illustrations of exemplary methods fordetermining key performance indicator values.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating one embodiment of a topology which canbe used in conjunction with an implementation of embodiments of thepresent invention.

The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicatessimilar or identical items.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In a particular example, flow rate and compositional data of amultiphase flow is used to project production characteristics of a wellor reservoir. In particular, flow and compositional data can be bothtime-dependent and position-dependent within the well. In an example,such flow and compositional data can be gleaned from an unstructureddata source, such as video image data captured down well. The flow andcompositional data can be used to build models relating productioncharacteristics to flow and compositional data for individual wellassets and for reservoir or field level production characteristics.

In an example, FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary series of rock strata 102including a productive structure 104 that holds desirable productionfluids, such as hydrocarbon oil or gas. The well 106 is drilled throughthe strata formations 102 and into the productive structure 104. Inparticular, the well 106 is illustrated as having production points 108.Such production points 108 are typically perforations within a wall ofthe well 106 providing fluidic access from the productive structure 104to the well bore of the well 106. Such perforations 108 generally resultin the production of a multiphase flow from the productive structure 104through the perforations 108 and up a well 106. As illustrated, the well106 utilizes horizontal drilling. However, several techniques can beused to provide multiple production points 108 within a productivestructure 104.

In particular, flow data associated with a phase of the multiphase flowcan be determined in proximity to one or more of the perforations 108.Such data can be utilized to build a model associated with the well,project a production characteristic associated with well, or prescribetreatment or processing of the well.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, a productive structure 202 includes a wellbore 204. At perforation locations (206, 210, or 214), the well can betreated to facilitate fracturing (208, 212, or 216) within theproductive structure 202, termed “fracking.” Such fracturing generallyincreases flow rates through the perforations. However, owing tovariability within a structure and different phases of material residingwithin the structure, different compositional flow rates may result ateach of the positions (206, 210 or 214). In an example, flowingcompositional data can be determined at one or more of the positions.Such data can be utilized to build models relating productioncharacteristics to the measured flow data. Such models can be utilizedto project production within a particular well, prescribe treatment forthe well, or in aggregate, be used to model, project, and strategicallyplan production from a reservoir or field.

In particular, an unstructured data source, such as video image data ofmultiphase flow taken at one or more positions within a well bore, canbe used to determine flow rate data of one or more phases of themultiphase flow. Such flow rate data can include average compositionaldata expressed as volume percent of flow or weight percent of flow,average flow velocity of one or more of the phases of the multiphaseflow, or a combination thereof.

In an example, illustrated in FIG. 3, video image data can be analyzedto identify phases within a multiphase flow. For example, FIG. 3illustrates flow within a well bore 302. Flow includes for example, anoil phase 304 within an aqueous phase 306. The multiphase flow may alsoinclude a gas phase 308. FIG. 4 illustrates the multiphase flow in thesame position within the well bore 302. The phases (oil phase 404,aqueous phase 406, or gas phase 408) change in confirmation with timeeither within the same video image data taken over a short period oftime, such as minutes or hours, or video image data taken at differenttimes at the same position, such as days, weeks, or months apart. Inparticular, an image file or video image data taken over a short periodof time can be analyzed to determine an average flow rate of aparticular phase, such as an oil phase or a gas phase within amultiphase flow.

At a different position, as illustrated in FIG. 5, of a well bore 502,the multiphase flow can have a different compositional configuration asdetermined by identifying the phases (oil phase 504, aqueous phase 506,or gas phase 508) within the video image data. As such, the video imagedata can be utilized to determine position-based compositional and flowrate variations or to determine flow rate data at different times. Suchflow rate data can be used to build models relating productioncharacteristics to the identified flow rate data. Productioncharacteristics can include expected total production of one or more ofthe phases, changes in production rates over time, positionalvariability of production rates, the response of production rates towell treatment or to further processing of the well.

In a particular example, the system can identify phases of a multiphaseflow and associate a cross-sectional area with a phase of the multiphaseflow in one or more frames. The system can average the cross-sectionalarea across multiple frames to determine a composition. In an example,the frames can be consecutive frames of a video. In another example, theframes can be selected periodically or randomly from a segment of video.Using a total flow rate and the estimated composition, a flow rate of aphase can be determined.

FIG. 6 includes an illustration of exemplary method 600 for managing aproductive asset. As illustrated at 602, down well video image data of amultiphase flow is received. Such video image data can be in variousformats including MPEG formats, MOV formats, NTSC, PAL, or various othervideo formats. Non-digital formats can be converted to digital formatsfor analysis.

As illustrated at 604, flow rate data can be determined for at least onephase of the multiphase flow. In an example, phases within the videoimage data can be identified. Techniques for identifying phases can, forexample, rely on identifying boundaries of the phases. Exemplaryalgorithms include edge detection, feature extraction based onintensity, texture, image flow, machine learning based on scalablevector machines.

In an example, the area associated with a particular phase can bedetermined and averaged over time to determine compositionalcharacteristics of the multiphase flow and thus, determine flow ratedata associated with a phase of the multiphase flow. Composition or flowrate can be estimated across multiple frames of video, for example,selected consecutively or periodically.

A model relating the determined flow rate data to the productioncharacteristics can be built, as illustrated at 606. In particular,additional data, such as data associated with well completion,perforation formation, number of perforations, well treatment,characteristics of the structural production formation, such ascomposition or porosity, among other features, or any combinationthereof, can be used along with the flow rate data to build a modelassociating a production characteristic to the flow rate data.

In particular, such a model can be used to project a productioncharacteristic of a well, as illustrated at 608. For example, theproduction characteristic can be an expected production rate of aparticular phase, such as a hydrocarbon phase. In another example, theproduction characteristic can be the production of the phase as it isprojected to vary over time. In a further example, the projectedproduction characteristic may be a projection of production changes inresponse to further treatment of the well, such as fracking, hot oiltreatment, or other treatments associated with production in a well. Inan additional example, projecting the production characteristic caninclude projecting a change in production in response to additionalprocessing of the well, such as adding or eliminating perforations,reworking the well to change positioning of perforations or otherprocessing or reworking of a well.

As illustrated at 610, the flow rate data can be aggregated from aplurality of wells within a field or reservoir. Such aggregated flowrate data can be used to build additional models relating flow rate datato single well production characteristics. Alternatively, as illustratedat 612, such aggregated flow rate data can be used to build a fieldreservoir model relating the aggregated flow rate data to a fieldproduction characteristic. Exemplary field production characteristicsinclude current production rates, projected future production rates,projected changes in production rates, changes in production rates inresponse to additional drilling, processing or treating of wells, theprojected lifetime of the reservoir or field, or projections relating tototal hydrocarbon recovery, or any combination thereof. In addition,data associated with the number of wells, well completion features,features of the reservoir formation, data from similar formations, orany combination thereof can be used to build the model.

Using the field model, the field production characteristic can beprojected, as illustrated at 614. In particular, as additional flow ratedata is measured, such flow rate data may be aggregated and used toproject current and future production characteristics.

In a particular example, video imaging can be performed at differentpositions within a well. Data from the video imaging can be analyzed todetermine the flow rate data associated with phases as the flow rateschange with position within a well. The system can then project theresponse of a well or the changes in the flow rate of one or more phasesto an additional treatment, such as additional fracking. In anotherexample, the system can project the changes in the flow rate in responseto reworking the well. For example, the system may project improvedproduction in response to repositioning perforations, changing thenumber or type of perforations, or blocking perforations. In anotherexample, the production flow rates can be used to build a modelcharacterizing the response of a particular production structure toparameters associated with a well treatment, such as fracking. Frackingtreatments can involve parameter, such as pressure, fluid pH,surfactants, grain size, concentration, and type, duration, amongothers, or any combination thereof. As wells are treated within theformation, the model may project which treatment alternatives andparameters to use to improve production from a given well within aparticular formation.

In particular, a computer system, such as a user-interactive computersystem, or a non-transitory storage media can implement aspects of theabove methods. In an example, a method that includes generating aninstance from an unstructured data source, such as down well video. Themethod further includes associating a variable entity with the instance,determining a value of the variable entity from the instance based on avalue detection rule, and generating a model. In an example, thevariable entity can be associated with an influencer of a set ofinfluencers. In another example, the variable entity can be associatedwith a performance indicator of a set of performance indicators. A modelcan associate the set of influencers with the set of performanceindicators and can be generated using the value of the variable entity.Exemplary unstructured data sources include video data, image data,audio data, narrative text, or any combination thereof. The method canfurther include associating a time stamp with the value of the variableentity based on a time detection rule. Generating the model can furtherinclude generating the model using the value of the variable entityassociated with the time stamp.

In particular, instances can be generated from an instance extractorformed based on a set of heuristics provided by user or determined basedon a generated model. In an example, unstructured data annotated withassociated instances can be provided to the system. The system cangenerate an instance extractor utilizing a subset of the annotatedunstructured data provided to the system. The system can further testthe instance extractor using a different subset of the annotatedunstructured data. The process can be repeated using different subsetsfor calibrating and testing. Subsets can be manually assigned. Inanother example, subsets can be randomly selected by the system.

A variable entity detector, a value detector and a timestamp detectorcan be generated from a plurality of annotated instances. A set ofinstances annotated with or associated with structured data can beprovided to the system. The system can use the annotated instances togenerate one or more models, such as a variable entity detector, a valuedetector, or a timestamp detector. Models can be tested using a secondsubset of the set of annotated instances. The process can be repeated,training the models using further subsets of the annotated instances andtesting using different further subsets of annotated instances. Once themodels are established, such as the variable entity detector, the valuedetector, or the timestamp detector, structured data can be generatedusing such models from instances generated by an instance extractor.

In an example, FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary method 700 for performingpredictive analysis using unstructured data. The method includesaccessing an unstructured data source, as illustrated at 702, generatingstructured data from the unstructured data source, as illustrated at704, determining the relationships between a set of influencers and aset of performance indicators based on the structured data, asillustrated at 706, and performing predictive analysis, as illustratedat 708.

As illustrated at 702, an unstructured data source can be accessed. Anexemplary unstructured data source includes a video data source, animage data source, an audio data source, narrative text, or anycombination thereof. A structured data source has a relational structurein which identified variables are associated with a set ofmachine-readable values. An exemplary machine-readable value includesnumerical values, integer values, categories, Boolean values, orcombinations thereof, among others. The values within the set ofmachine-readable values may be associated with a time stamp. As such,the association between variables and values in the structured datasource is relatively simple, and not complex. In contrast, anunstructured data source utilizes significant processing to associate avalue with the variable entity. Further, the variable entity may not bereadily identified with the unstructured data source. As such, anunstructured data source may not include an association with a variableentity or a value associated with the variable entity and further maylack a time stamp associated with the value. Processing an unstructureddata source can include identifying which variable entity to associatewith the data source, determining a value, and optionally extracting atime stamp associated with the value from the unstructured data source.

As illustrated at 704, structured data is generated from theunstructured data source. The variable entity, value, and optionallytime stamp are derived from the unstructured data and stored asstructured data. The variable entity associated with the structured datacan be an influencer of a set of influencers or a performance indicatorof a set of performance indicators.

A relationship between the set of influencers and the set of performanceindicators is determined based on the structured data including thestructured data derived from the unstructured data source, asillustrated at 706. The relationships can take the form of heuristics orthe form of algorithms to form regression models, Markov chains, timeseries models, state space models, Bayesian models, neural networks, orany other appropriate model, or any combination thereof. In particular,exemplary algorithms include autoregressive integrated moving average(ARIMA), seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA), autoregressive conditionalheteroskedasticity (ARCH), or generalized autoregressive conditionalheteroskedasticity (GARCH), among others.

Using the relationships, predictive analysis can be performed, asillustrated at 708. In particular, the analytics system and methods canbe used to implement Prescriptive Analytics® techniques that assist withdetermining future actions or decisions in view of business rules andprojected outcomes. The methods herein can be embodied in executableinstructions, processors or systems to execute such instructions,interfaces implemented by such systems, media storing such executableinstructions, and services derived from the use of such methods andsystems. In addition, the methods can be utilized to provide PredictiveDecision Management® information and services, such asDecision-as-a-Service™ services. In particular, the methods canimplement predictive analysis, such as forecasting to project what willhappen and when. Further, the methods can implement optimization,scenario testing, and root cause analysis of factors that influenceperformance.

In a particular example, the system for performing predictive analysisincludes a subsystem or a separate system for accessing unstructureddata and generating structured data from the unstructured data. Forexample, FIG. 8 includes an illustration of exemplary system 800 forgenerating structured data from unstructured data. The system 800accesses the unstructured data source 802 and generates one or moreinstances from the unstructured data using an instance extractor 804. Inparticular, the instance extractor 804 can include instance generationrules for generating instances from the unstructured data source 802. Aninstance represents an atomic piece of data from which a single value ofa variable to be associated with the instance can be derived whensecondary processing is performed on the instance. A single data pointor value and optionally an associated time stamp are derived from theinstance, in part depending on the type of variable to be associatedwith the instance. Exemplary instances can include images, segments ofimages, segments of video, sentences, paragraphs, phrases, or anycombination thereof, among others.

The instance extractor and the instance generation rules can include aset of heuristics or algorithms to be applied based on the form of theunstructured data source. For example, the instance generation rules caninclude an identified data type and an associated heuristic or algorithmfor generating instances from data of the identified type.

In an example, video data can be separated into individual frames andstored as image instances, or an audio track instance can be extractedfrom a video source. In another example, portions of audio data can beprocessed to extract human voices or conversations. In a furtherexample, narrative texts can be processed to extract sentences orphrases of interest as instances.

Once the instances are extracted from the unstructured data source 802,one or more instances can be associated with a variable entity oridentity using an entity detector 806. For example, the entity detector806 can include entity matching rules, and the entity matching rules canbe used to associate or identify which variables can be associated withthe instances. The entity matching rules can include a variable type tobe associated with the variable entity and an instance type to which thevariable entity can be assigned. In part, the variable type associatedwith the variable entity detector 806 can influence which instances canbe associated with the variable entity. For example, a facial expressiontype variable can appropriately be associated with frames of a videothat include faces as opposed to an audio file extracted from a videosource. In another example, a sentiment analysis variable determinedbased on changes in pitch of voice may be appropriately associated withan audio file extracted from a video source, but would not beappropriate for assignment to instances including images or narrativetext.

A value can be extracted from an instance based on the identity orvariable type associated with the instance. In particular, the systemcan include a value detector 808 that includes value detection rules fordetermining the value from the instance 804. In an example, the valuedetector 808 can include the nature of the value and an algorithm forextracting value from the instance 804. The nature of the value can benumerical, integer, Boolean, or categorical, among others.

Optionally, a time stamp to be associated with the value can be derivedfrom the instance. For example, a time stamp detector 810 can includetime detection rules. The time detection rules can be applied to theinstance to determine the time stamp to be associated with the value. Anexemplary time detection rule can include an indication of the format ofthe time stamp and which algorithm to use when deriving the time stamp,among other features. For example, a time stamp can be derived from afile creation date. However, the file creation date is frequently aninaccurate indication of a time stamp, particularly when an image isderived from a frame of video during processing unstructured data 802.As such, the time detection rules may derive time from metadataassociated with the original file or the instance or from aspects withinan image, for example. In an example, a time stamp may be shown in theimage. In a further example, a time of day or season may be generatedbased on context within the image, such as based on a background withinan image. In another example, an audio file may include embedded dataindicating a time stamp associated with the audio file or may include avoice stating the time stamp or providing context from which a timestamp can be derived.

As such, processing the unstructured data 802 to form one or moreinstances can result in an identified variable, a set of valuesassociated with the variable, and optionally times associated withvalues to be stored as structured data 812. Such structured data 812 canbe accessed for performing predictive analysis or other techniques suchas Prescriptive Analytics®.

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary method 900 for processing unstructureddata. For example, the unstructured data is accessed, as illustrated at902. Such accessing includes accessing a memory storing the unstructureddata or acquiring the data from an internet source, a data stream, orbroadcast source.

As illustrated at 904, instances are generated from the unstructureddata. For example, a video file may be processed to form frame imagesand extract audio data from the video data source. In another example,an audio data source can be processed to extract background noises, orparse human voices and speech. In a further example, the audio sourcecan be processed to generate text. In another example, narrative textscan be processed to generate sentences or phrases as instances.

In an example, the instances can be generated through user interactionor through automated methods. The system can implement an interactiveuser interface to manipulate the unstructured data source and generatethe instances. In another example, the system can automatically generatethe instances. Automated methods can include supervised and automatedsupervised methods. In an example, a training set can be annotated andprovided to the system for training. A test set can be provided to testthe system performances following training. In particular, a k-foldtraining in which several training and test sets are provided to thesystem can be implemented. In an automated supervised method, a set ofrules or features can be identified. The system can auto-annotate atraining set. The accuracy of subsequent tests can be monitored by auser. For example, extractors and detector models can be trained andtested for processing unstructured data as described in relation to FIG.10 and FIG. 11 below.

A variable entity can be associated with the instances based on anentity detector, as illustrated at 906. The entity detector may specifywhich instance type or metadata associate with the instance qualifiesthe instance for association with a variable entity. For example, facialexpression type variables can be associated with images or frames of avideo but not with audio data.

As with the instances, the variable entities can be assigned throughuser interaction or through automated methods. The system can implementan interactive user interface to associate a variable entity with theinstance. In another example, the system can automatically associate avariable entity with the instance. Automated methods can includesupervised or automated supervised methods, as described above.

Once the variable entity is associated with an instance, a valueassociated with variable entity can be determined from the instancebased on a value detector, as illustrated at 908. In particular, thevalue detector can identify an algorithm for processing the instance.The algorithm can be selected based on the variable type of the variableentity associated with the instance. Exemplary algorithms include voicerecognition algorithms to process audio data, facial expressionalgorithms to process images of faces, or sentiment analysis forprocessing narrative texts, among others.

Optionally, a time stamp can be associated with the value based on atimestamp detector, as illustrated 910. The time stamp can be determinedbased on metadata within the file or characteristics within the instancethat indicated time. In particular, the time detection rules can specifya granularity or format of time to be associated with the value and canspecify a method, algorithm or heuristic for determining the time stampto be associated with the value. In an example, the instance metadatacan include an indicated time stamp. In another example, a time stampcan be derived from the instance based on aspects of the instance. Forexample, a video frame may include an image timestamp within the imageof the frame. In another example, algorithms may derive a time stampbased on backgrounds within the instance. In an exemplary audio file, atimestamp may be stored within the audio data or a time stamp can bederived from spoken language within the audio file. A time stamp can bederived from narrative texts based on bylines, headings, post date,language used in the text, or any combination thereof.

As such, a set of values optionally associated with time stamps can bestored in association with the variable entity in a structured form. Thestructured data can be associated with an influencer of a set ofinfluencers or a performance indicator of a set of performanceindicators, as illustrated at 912. Such structured data can be used toperform predictive analysis or other techniques, such as PrescriptiveAnalytics®.

For example, a video image taken at a position down well can be used todetermine composition of a multiphase flow. The video can be samples toprovide instances including a set of frames. Each frame of the set offrames can be designated an image entity that depicts multiple phases. Acompositional value can be extracted by determining cross-sectionalareas of a phase, for example, using edge analysis to find the areas.The areas can be averaged across the set of frames to provide acomposition value. In an example in which each frame includes a timestamp, either in metadata or as part of the image, a time stamp can bedetermined either by reading the metadata or by character recognition ofthe time stamp. The compositional value and the time stamp comprisestructured data that can be applied to a well model or a field model topredict performance characteristics or prescribe actions that wouldimprove the performance characteristics, such as production.

FIG. 10 illustrates a system 1000 in which unstructured data is used togenerate an instance extractor, an entity detector, a value detector, ora timestamp detector. For example, unstructured data 1002 can beprovided to the system including a set of data annotated with associatedinstances. For example, a subset of the annotated data 1004 can be usedfor calibrating an instance extractor 1008 and a second subset ofannotated data 1006 can be used to test the instance extractor 1008.Optionally, additional subsets of annotated data can be provided tofurther train and test the instance extractor 1008. For example, theinstance extractor 1008 can be generated using k-fold training. The dataused for each training cycle can be manually assigned. Alternatively,the annotated data used for the training cycles can be randomly assignedto subsets. Once the instance extractor 1008 is trained, unstructureddata 1010 that is not annotated with associated instance can beprocessed through the instance extractor 1008 to provide instances 1016.

One or more subsets of the instances 1016 can be annotated withstructured data. For example, a subset of annotated instances 1012 canbe utilized for training one or more models, such as a variable entitydetector 1018, a value detector 1020, or a timestamp detector 1022. Oneor more second subsets of the annotated instances 1014 can be used totest the variable entity detector 1018, the value detector 1020, or thetimestamp detector 1022. One or more additional subsets of annotatedinstances can be used to further train or test one or more of thevariable entity detector 1018, the value detector 1020 or the timestampdetector 1022 in a k-fold training process. Data from within theannotated subsets can be selected manually or can be selected randomly.Further, the variable entity detector 1018, the variable value detector1020, and the timestamp detector 1022 can be trained using the samesubsets of annotated data or can be trained using different subsets ofannotated data.

Once the variable entity detector 1018, the variable value detector 1020and the timestamp detector 1022 are trained, additional instances 1016can be processed through the detectors (1018, 1020, or 1022) to providestructured data 1024. The structured data 1024 can be used to generate apredictive model and can be used as inputs to such a predictive model togenerate predictions.

As illustrated in FIG. 11, a method 1100 generates extractor/detectormodels that can be used to process unstructured data. For example,unstructured data that is annotated with instances can be provided. Inanother example, instances that are annotated with structured data canbe provided. Using the annotated unstructured data or the annotatedinstances, the system can generate an instance extractor or a detector,such as a variable entity detector, a value detector, or a timestampdetector, as illustrated at 1102 using a subset of the annotated data.

Using a different subset of the annotated data, the extractor ordetector can be tested, as illustrated at 1104. The training and testingof the extractor or detector can be repeated in a k-fold trainingprocess. Subsets of annotated data can be selected manually or can beselected at random or can be selected automatically using variousheuristics.

Once a satisfactory extractor or detector is generator and trained,unstructured data can be processed through the extractors and detectors,as illustrated at 1106, to generate structured data. Such structureddata can be used to generate predictive models or can be used as inputto predictive models to generate predictions.

In an example, the unstructured data can take the form of video, imagesor frames of video, sound, or text. In an example, instances can beextracted from video using foreground analysis. For example, video canbe analyzed by observing static versus dynamic or changing pixels toidentify foreground images versus a background. Background data can beremoved and the video instances be provided in 1 min. segments. Inanother example, foreground images can be extracted as frames from thevideo.

In a further example, images or video frames can be utilized to extractinformation about individuals within the images. For example, an imagecan be processed to detect whether the image includes an image of aperson and further processed based on whether a color of clothing, skinor the shape of an eye is present in the image. In a further example,sound files can be extracted based on the presence of human voices.Instances can be extracted to provide segments of human voice, such as 1min. segments of human voice. In an additional example, text can beextracted to locate sentences within the text. Each sentence can beextracted as an instance.

The instances can be processed to determine an entity, value, or atimestamp. For example, video segments, or images can be processed todetermine gender of individuals depicted within the video segmentinstances or the image instances. The video segment or image instancecan be used to detect a person using an entity detector. Those instancesthat include a person can be processed using a value detector todetermine whether the person is male or female. The instance can befurther processed using a timestamp detector to detect a timestamp ofthe instance.

In another example, various instances can be used to determine anemotional state. For example, a video segment can be tested to find aface using an entity detector. Similarly, images or video frames can beprocessed using the entity detector to determine those images or videoframes that include a face. Using a value detector, an emotion may beinferred based on the face. In an example, an angry emotion, neutralemotion, or sad emotion can be identified using the value detector. Atimestamp detector can be further used to determine a timestamp of theinstance. For video, the identified emotions may be aggregated oraveraged over time or segments grouped by category based on theoccurrence of an emotion within the segment of video.

A sound file can be processed to find emotion by determining humanvoices within an instance using an entity detector. Using a valuedetector, the nature of the emotion (e.g., angry, sad, neutral . . . )can be determined. As with a video segment, the determined emotion maybe aggregated and averaged over the over the sound for a period of timeover which the sounds segment is extracted.

In relation to text, sentence instances can be evaluated for theexistence of language indicative of emotion. Using a value detector, thenature of emotions connoted by the sentence or through the sentence canbe determined.

In a particular example, a video of multiphase flow within a well borecan be analyzed for regions or areas depicting different phases. Fromcross-sections of the regions or areas, composition of the multiphaseflow can be determined.

Once the extractors and detectors are trained, unstructured data can beprocessed to determine structured data. The structured data can be usedas influencers and performance indicators in a predictive system.

In an embodiment, a system predicts problems that can occur, providingan indication of both the nature of the problem and when it is expectedto occur. The problems can be expressed as deviations in performanceindicators that violate business criteria. For example, a problem can beexpressed as the value of a performance indicator crossing a threshold.In addition, the system supports testing of solutions to the predictedproblem. The solutions are expressed in terms of what action to take andwhen to take such action. As such, the system assists with determining adesirable set of future actions to maintain a business process incompliance with business criteria. Deviations from performanceindicators that violate business criteria can also include opportunitiesfrom which the business can benefit. For example, when a future customersatisfaction score exceeds a threshold, the business can decide toreduce its service level and thus, reduce cost.

Businesses rely on business processes to function. Evaluating how wellthat business process is performing allows a business to allocateresources, increase production, improve its position in the marketplace, increase profitability, or any combination thereof. For example,a business process can include a call center, the function beingcustomer service or technical support. In another example, the businessprocess can include field services, the function being productinstallation or repair. In a further example, the business process canbe a marketing department, the function being to control publicperception of the business or a response rate. In additional examples,the business process can include transactions services, finance andaccounting, manufacturing, logistics, sales, or any combination thereof.

In a particular example, hydrocarbon production relies on businessprocesses, such as planned drilling, fracture of wells, reworkingperforations, production logistics, shut-ins, and other processes toimprove recovery from a producing structure.

In particular, evaluation of the business process can be correlated withperformance indicators (PIs). One or more performance indicators (PIs)can be used to quantify how well a business process is performing. Forexample, a call center can quantify performance using performanceindicators, such as customer satisfaction, problem resolution,productivity indicators, cost indicators, or any combination thereof. Inhydrocarbon production, performance can be evaluated based on wellproduction, total field production, and field management for aproduction stage or aged field.

Once determined, the performance indicators (PIs) can be compared withbusiness criteria to determine whether the business process isperforming as desired. For example, a business criterion can includethreshold values, limits on rates of change, heuristics associated withaspects of the business function or any combination thereof. Forexample, the performance indicator (PI) can be compared to a thresholdvalue to determine whether the performance indicator (PI) is within adesired range or is in violation of the threshold, indicating poorperformance or an unnecessary high performance.

The performance indicators (PIs) are influenced by other factorsassociated with performing the business process. In particular, suchfactors are referred to as influencers and influencers correlate withthe performance indicators. For example, an influencer associated withcall center performance can include the number of contacts made with acustomer to resolve an issue, the type of issue, hold time, shippingdelays, or any combination thereof, among others. Such influencers can,for example, influence performance indicators, such as customersatisfaction and brand satisfaction. Performance indicators (PIs) orinfluencers can be of numerical (continuous) nature, categorical nature,or a combination thereof. Further, the PIs or influencers can be orderedor can be non-ordered. In another example, the distributions ofperformance indicators (PIs) or influencers are utilized or predicted.In particular, a PI distribution provides data about the underlyingnature of the median or mean value. For example, when the PI relates tocustomer satisfaction, an average value does not provide informationabout the number of dissatisfied customers. An average of 80%satisfaction can be the result of all participants having a satisfactionnear 80% or can be the result of several 100% satisfied customers and afew very dissatisfied customers. Identifying the existence and thencause of the few very dissatisfied customers can provide greater benefitthan seeking to achieve an average value. In the case of categoricalperformance indicators (PIs) or influencers, such a prediction caninclude the prediction of the occurrence set of categories. As usedbelow, the term “value” is used to include numerical values, categoricalvalues, or any combination thereof. In hydrocarbon production, review ofwell production and compositional history can indicate a stage ofproduction or a nature of the region around the well within thereservoir.

The influencers and the performance indicators (PIs) change over time.The change can be caused by the change of influencers or by a timedependency of a performance indicator on itself. As such, theperformance indicator (PI) can deviate overtime and violate businesscriteria, which is indicative of a problem in the business unit or lowperformance. To correct the deviation, associated influencers can bemanipulated. For example, more staff can be added to reduce hold time.However, immediate manipulation of the influencers to solve a problempredicted in the future can provide less than desirable solutions to theproblems in the business process. For example, hiring more staff longbefore the hold times are expected to increase leads to higher cost inthe call center. The present system can assists with determining adesirable set of future actions to maintain a business processincompliance with business criteria. In hydrocarbon production,performance can be enhanced using reworking of wells, fracturing, wellshut-in, or other actions.

In an embodiment, the present system performs a method to determine sucha desirable set of future actions. For example, FIG. 12 illustrates amethod 2600, which includes acquiring data (2602), determiningrelationships and criteria (2604), predicting outcomes (2606) andadjusting future actions (2608). The present system can acquire data, asillustrated at 2602, from a variety of sources. The data can be acquiredfrom external sources. Exemplary external sources include databases,testing, or any combination thereof, among others. In particular, thedata can be derived from structured sources. In another example, thedata can be derived from unstructured sources. The data can betransformed and aggregated. In addition, the data can be cleaned. Theresulting data can be stored in a data management system.

In an example, the system can also use streaming data sources wherethere is no intermediate data management system for the storage ofaggregated data. Such a system is especially useful for big unstructureddata sets (terabyte data) where the use of a rational databasemanagement system would be inefficient or economically unacceptable. Insuch an example, techniques such as Map/Reduce are applied based on BigData processing systems like Apache Hadoop.

Once clean aggregated data is available, relationships betweenperformance indicators and potential influencers can be determined andcriteria for performance can be established, as illustrated at 2604.Such relationships permit projection of potential outcomes, which can becompared with the criteria to determine whether the business process isfunctioning well. In particular, the relationships can identifyinfluencers that have a greater influence on one or more performanceindicators.

As illustrated at 2606, outcomes can be projected. Projecting caninclude predictive analysis to determine what is to happen. Predictiveanalysis can include forecasting to determine what is to happen and inwhat time frame. In particular, such projection can include projectingthe value of one or more performance indicators based on the determinedrelationships and expected values of influencers. In a further example,the future values of one or more influencers are projected, and theperformance indicators are determined based at least in part on thefuture values of the one or more influencers. Projecting, and inparticular, forecasting can be performed using an algorithm constrainedwith business rules. For example, the values of influencers orperformance indicators can be constrained based on rules established bythe business. In an example, one or more of the performance indicatorsare projected to violate one or more business criteria at future times.For example, the value of a performance indicator can cross a thresholdat a future time step. In this way, the business process is providedwith warning about a potential problem that may arise in the future.

The present system can also permit adjustment of future actions, asillustrated at 2608. For example, to determine a solution to a projectedproblem, the system can adjust, in an automatic mode or through manualadjustment, the future value of one or more influencers. The performanceindicators can be projected using the adjusted influencer values todetermine whether the problem is solved. In particular, the adjustmentto influencer values can be made at one or more future time steps. Assuch, minor adjustments to an influencer value can be made during aseries of time steps. In another example, a large adjustment can be madeat a single time step closer to the projected violation of the businesscriteria. The process can be iterated to determine a particularlyadvantageous set of future actions that maintain the performanceindicators at desired states. In particular, a performance indicator canbe optimized by adjusting one or more values of the influencers. As usedherein, optimizing is a process of adjusting values to meet or approacha criterion. Further, the process can be constrained based on businessrules. For example, business rules can set boundaries to the values ofinfluencers or performance indicators.

In addition, the future actions and data derived therefrom can be usedto recalibrate the system. For example, new results relating actionstaken can be used to inform the algorithm and for selection of analgorithm. Other processes, such as iteratively adjusting or optimizingor root cause analysis, can be performed automatically or continuouslyin response to new data.

To conceptually illustrate the iterations to determine a desirable setof future actions to maintain a business process in compliance withbusiness criteria, FIG. 13 includes a graph illustration of therelationship between the value of a performance indicator and time. Asillustrated, with each step in time, the value of the performanceindicator changes. At the fourth time step, the value of the performanceindicator violates a business criterion. The business criterion isillustrated as a threshold 2702. When the value of the performanceindicator extends above the threshold 2702 or below the threshold 2704,the performance indicator has violated business criteria. Alternatively,the business criteria can be expressed as limits to a rate of change. Inanother example, the thresholds can have difference values at differenttimes.

FIG. 14 illustrates expected influencer values over time. To more easilyvisualize a comparison, the values can be normalized. While a multilinechart is used to illustrate FIG. 14 for conceptual purposes, theinfluencer values can include categorical values, numerical values, orany combination thereof. For example, an influencer 2802 can haveconstant values at each of a series of time steps. In another example,an influencer 2804 can have values that increase with each subsequenttime step. Alternatively, the value of an influencer can fluctuate witheach time step. For example, an influencer 2806 can decrease in a firsttime step and increase at a subsequent time step. While the values ofthree exemplary influencers are illustrated, influencer values can beprojected to increase, decrease, or remain the same with each time stepin the time series.

In particular, the influencer values or categories can be projectedbased on known factors and prior history. For example, if call volume orhold time are considered influencer of customer satisfaction in a callcenter, it may be projected, based on past experience, that call volumeand hold time increase during holiday seasons. In a field serviceprocess for a heating and air conditioning company, service calls canincrease during summer months in Southern regions and increase in wintermonths in Northern regions. As such, embodiments of the present systemcan utilize manually set values of influencers, projected values ofinfluencers, or any combination thereof.

Each influencer can contribute to the projected value of one or moreperformance indicators and each performance indicator can be a functionof one or more influencers and time. In particular, determining therelationship of influencers and performance indicators includesdetermining the contribution of each influencer to the value of aprojected performance parameter. Such conceptual contributions are inpractice a model derived from data and relevant algorithms. FIG. 15illustrates conceptually the contribution of two influencers to aprojected performance indicator. In addition to the value of theinfluencer, the value of the performance indicator can be influenced byhow much a particular influencer influences the value of the performanceindicator at future time steps. For example, the contribution of aninfluencer 2902 to the value of a performance indicator can decreaseover time. As illustrated, the value of influencer 2902 contributessignificantly to the current value of the performance indicator.However, the value of the influencer 2902 contributes less to projectedvalues of the performance indicator. In such an example, the influencer2902 may not correlate with future values of the performance indicator.In contrast, the contribution of an influencer 2904 to the value of aperformance indicator increases at subsequent time steps. For example,the value of the influencer 2904 can correlate strongly with the valueof the performance indicator at a future time step.

Using the influencer values or categories, whether projected or manuallyset, and using the relationships of such influencer values or categorieson future values of the performance indicator, the system can projectperformance indicator values or categories over a series of future timesteps and iteratively adjust the influencer values or the occurrence ofcategories at future time steps to determine desirable changes toinfluencer values or categories at future time steps that maintain theperformance indicators in balance with the business criteria.

For example, FIG. 16 includes an illustration of sets of changes thatcan be made to the values of an influencer through a time series. In anexample, the value of the influencer can be constant through time, asillustrated at 3002. Such a path (set of consecutive values of aninfluencer) can lead to a violation of a business criterion byperformance indicators. To prevent violation of the business criterion,the influencer can be decreased at at least one future time step. Forexample, at a third time step the influencer can be reducedsignificantly, as illustrated at 3004, to prevent a violation. Inanother example, the influencer can be gradually reduced over a seriesof time steps, as illustrated at 3006. As such, different paths or setsof changes to an influencer value can be assessed to determine apreferred path that maintains the business process in compliance. In anexample, such a path can be preferred because it is a lower costsolution or has advantages not present with other paths.

As such, embodiments of the present system can assist with determining aset of future actions (changes to influencers) that maintain a businessprocess, as quantified by performance indicators, in compliance withbusiness criteria. In other words, the present system can assist withdetermining which changes to make to a business process and when to makesuch changes. For example, the system can assist with determining aschedule for refracturing, reworking, well shut-ins, or other treatmentsof well in hydrocarbon or fluid production.

In an embodiment illustrated in FIG. 17, the present system 3100includes tools 3102 for processing raw data gathered from externalsources. For example, the tools 3102 can assist with loading data fromexternal sources, transforming the data into desirable formats,aggregating the data, and cleaning the data.

In particular, the data can be derived from structured sources, such asdatabases, tables, listings, or any combination thereof. In anotherexample, the data can be derived from unstructured sources. Unstructuredsources are sources that are interpreted using human or artificialintelligence and, for example, include video sources, audio sources,narrative text, or any combination thereof. Narrative text includes, forexample, articles, blogs, emails, and other writings in prose, such asthose available via the internet or electronic sources. Further,unstructured sources can include documents having narrative text andincluding enriched formatting, such as tags. For example, theunstructured source can include a narrative text document formulated ina hypertext, XML or tagged format. Once processed, the data is stored,for example, in a data management system, such as a database 3104.

The data and a set of algorithms 3106 can be used to prepare models.Algorithms 3106 can take the form of heuristics or the form ofalgorithms to form regression models, Markov chains, time series models,state space models, Bayesian models, neural networks, or any otherappropriate model, or any combination thereof. In particular, exemplaryalgorithms 3106 include autoregressive integrated moving average(ARIMA), seasonal ARIMA (SARIMA), autoregressive conditionalheteroskedasticity (ARCH), or generalized autoregressive conditionalheteroskedasticity (GARCH), among others. The data can be applied thoughthe algorithms 3106 to provide relationships and models betweeninfluencers and performance indicators, which can be validated against atest set from the original data, at validation 3108. Validation 3108results can be used by selector 3110 to select a preferred model 3106.The model is assembled and stored in a model management system 3112,through which performance indicators can be projected and desirablepaths of influencer values determined.

Once prepared, embodiments of the present system can apply new externaldata, in addition to existing data, to project the values of influencersand performance indicators. A user can configure the system,establishing, for example, a period over which projects are to be made,and other parameters associated with the system. In addition,embodiments of the system can assist with ranking a set of influencersbased on their contribution to a particular performance indicator. Asmall change in a high ranking influencer can have a greater effect on aperformance indicator than a large change in a low ranking influencer.Such a ranking can be used to perform root cause analysis. Further, thesystem can be tested for accuracy based on the model.

In a further explanation of the system, key performance indicators 3602are influenced by influencers 3604 as constrained by constraints 3608,as illustrated in FIG. 18. Further, a user 3612 can influence therelationships established between constraints (R) and influencers (I).For example, a user can select parameters, a type of model, or otherfactors that influence how a relationship (r) is established between theinfluencers 3604, the constraints 3608, and the KPI 3602.

Such a relationship (r) permits the determination of the KPI 3602 at oneor more future time periods based on present and future values ofinfluencers 3604 subject to constraints 3608. In addition, such arelationship (r) is useful for determining the influence of smallchanges in the influencers 3604 on the KPI 3602 at a selected futuretime. As a result, root cause analysis can be performed specifically forthe selected future time or generally across time periods. In addition,the system can automatically or iteratively determine a set ofactionable tasks including changes to influencer values over time toprovide future KPI values 3602 that do not violate business rules,subject to constraints 3608. A business rule can be a constraint.Alternatively, a business rule can be different than a constraint. In afurther example, a user can manipulate one or more future values of aselected influencer 3604 to determine the effect on the future value ofa key performance indicator.

The constraints 3608 can take a variety of forms including boxconstraints, functional constraints, quantized constraints, stepconstraints or any combination thereof. The constraint may not be staticover time. In particular, the system can indicate that a constraint isto be changed based on auxiliary data. As a result, a constraint canevolve over time, providing an indication of new business rules or a newparadigm discovered through data provided to the system. For example, arange associated with a box constraint can be changed when a value ofthe KPI or an influencer is frequently in violation of limits of a boxconstraint. Such sticking to an upper or lower constraint can indicatethat a more optimal solution is found in a different range of theinfluencer value. When the constraint is a function, the form of thefunction or the parameters associated with the function can change overtime as data is provided to the system. Such constraints can also be arelationship based on business rules and performance indicators. In anadditional example, a constraint can limit the range of an associatedinfluencer based on the temporally adjacent values of the associatedinfluencer. In an example, constraints 3610 are each influenced byexternal data 3614. As external data 3614 is provided to the constraints3610, constraints can change or can provide a user with an indicationthat the constraint should be reconsidered. In such a manner, newbusiness rules can be discovered, preconceived notions of doing businesscan be reevaluated, and adjustments to the constraints can beconsidered.

Determining whether to change a constraint or other rules within thesystem can be performed utilizing meta-rules. Meta-rules can apply ageneralize rule to constraints based on the type of constraint or thebehavior of data associated with the constraint. For example, when aprescribed influencer is at the top or the bottom of a box constraintfor a set number of times, the system can indicate that the constraintshould be reconsidered. In another example, when an influencer exhibitserratic changes providing a high variance in influencer values, theabsence of a constraint or a preference for reconsidering constraintscan be indicated. In such a manner, business rules and other constraintscan be adaptive, compensating for changes in a business environment.

In a further example, analysis by user 3612 can influence the nature ofthe relationship. Using techniques, such as Bayesian networks, canindicate whether additional influencers should be included in therelationship (r). For example, analysis of the system can indicate thatan additional influencer 3606 should be provided to establish arelationship (r) for determining future KPI values. As such, the systemcan assist with building a relationship model, selecting appropriateinfluencers, and introducing or removing influencers as a businessenvironment changes or the influencers lose influence on the KPI.

Such networks can be further utilized to translate actions 3706 intoinfluencers 3704 that are used in relational models to determine valuesof the performance indicators 3702, as illustrated at FIG. 19. Inparticular, exemplary action hierarchies can combine user actions 3706into differing influencers 3704 that provide relationships fordetermining future values of key performance indicators. In this way,the system 3700 can provide a way of translating actionable businessactions to future values of key performance indicators usingintermediary influencer values. When influencer values are determinedfor a future actionable pathway, actions 3706 can be determined frominfluencers 3704 and implemented by a user.

The future value of an influencer can also be limited by values oftemporally neighboring future values. For example, an influencer at afirst future time can limit the value of the influencer at a secondfuture time. Such a limit can be expressed based on step limits (e.g.,maximum permissible change). In another example, the limit can beexpressed as a function of time. For example, limits on the value of aninfluencer can change based on time, either relative or according to acalendar.

When limits to influencer values are a function of time or otherinfluencer values, optimization to achieve a desired key performanceindicator value can take longer to implement. For example, when aninfluencer value is functionally constrained based on time, changing thevalue of the influencer to a substantially optimal value can beprevented until the functional constraint permits the influencer to havethe substantially optimal value.

In a further example, the relationships for predicting the KPIs can berecalibrated. In particular, a trigger rule can be evaluated when newdata is received. For example, a predicted value of a KPI can becompared to an actual value and when the difference is significant, suchas beyond a threshold, recalibration can be triggered.

Recalibration can include adjusting parameters of a model based on newdata. The system can also determine that the previous model no longerreflects the relationships between influencers and performanceindicators. A model can be restructured to better reflect therelationships. In another example, a new influencer can be added to themodel. In a further example, a new type of algorithm or model can beselected and the parameters determined for the new type of algorithm ormodel based on the new data and past data. Once recalibration isperformed, the system can provide an updated prediction, root-causeanalysis, or prescription.

Further, the system can provide a warning when suggested actions are notimplemented. For example, when the system predicts that a future valueof a key performance indicator will be in violation of a business ruleand prescribes an action and when new data indicates that the action wasnot implemented and the key performance indicator will be in violationof the business rule, the system can provide an indication or send amessage to a supervisor indicating that the actions were not taken. Forexample, an indication can be displayed on an interface device, sent viaemail, sent as a text message, or provided as a voicemail.

Embodiments of the systems and methods of the present invention can bebetter explained with reference to FIG. 20 which depicts one embodimentof a topology which can be used to implement embodiments of the systemsand methods of the present invention. Topology 2000 comprisesperformance metric analysis system 2220 (including associated data store2222) comprising one or more computer devices 2230. These computingdevices 2230 can, for example, by organized as a cluster which can be aloosely or a tightly coupled cluster and include one or more loadbalancers (not shown). Performance metric analysis system 2220 (e.g. oneor more of computing devices 2230) can be coupled through network 2270to computing devices 2210 (e.g. computer systems, personal dataassistants, kiosks, dedicated terminals, etc), one or more locations ofan entity 2240 and one or more third party data sources 2250 operable toprovide, for example, market data, benchmarking data, etc. Network 2270can be for example, the Internet, a wide area network (WAN), a localarea network (LAN) or any other type of conventional or non-electroniccommunication link such as mail, courier services or the like.

Generally speaking then, entity 2240 can be a business, non-profit, orother type of entity which implements a process. This process can, forexample, be a business process which relates to the functionality orperformance of the entity. As discussed above, for example, suchbusiness processes can comprise the implementation of customer servicethrough a contact or call center, the implementation of transactionservices, the management of supply or demand chains or other inventorymanagement, the implementation of field services, the implementation andmanagement of sales pipelines, etc.

No matter the type of processes implemented by the entity 2240 however,it can be useful to measure or otherwise analyze (including predicting,simulating, optimizing, etc.) the performance of such a processutilizing a performance metric, such as a KPI as discussed above.Accordingly, entity 2240 can desire to utilize and monitor theseperformance metrics related to these processes for a variety of reasons,including improving the performance of such processes, reducing the costof implementing such processes, controlling the quality of suchprocesses, preempting issues which can occur in the future with respectto these processes, substantially optimizing solutions to futureproblems and predicatively determine the effect of certain solutions toanticipated future problems, etc.

To that end, performance metric analysis system 2220 can gather datafrom entity 2240 or a third party data source 2250 to analyze such datato perform analysis on such data and can present an interface such thatone or more users at computing devices 2210 can determine what analyticsare utilized, the data used for these analytics, view, or affect theresults, of such analytics, etc. Embodiments of such interfaces havebeen discussed previously herein.

More specifically, in one embodiment, performance metric analysis system2220 can implement a set of analytics comprising at least predictiveanalytics, root-cause analytics, optimization and what-if simulation.Colloquially speaking, predictive analytics allows users (for example,associated with entity 2240) to identify and quantify problems(including opportunities) related to one or more performance metrics,root-cause analysis allows users to identify, quantify and rankinfluencers of performance metrics which can cause any upcomingproblems, optimization can determine substantially optimum solution topreempt (or benefit from) any determined upcoming problems and what-ifsimulation allows a user to determine the effect of prescribed solutionson performance metrics.

To implement such analytics, performance metric analysis system 2220 cangather data directly or indirectly related to one or more performancemetrics from entity 2240. Entity 2240 can have multiple locations 2240a, 2240 n where each entity location 2240 a, 2240 n can comprisemultiple servers or other types of computing devices 2242 which areinvolved in the implementation of the process by the entity 2240 or thestorage of data involved with the implementation of the process. In someinstances, entity locations 2240 a, 2240 n can have computing deviceswhich run according to different operating systems or protocols, orwhich implement different types of applications or databases inconjunction with the process.

Each entity location 2240 a, 2240 n can have an associated ETL collector2160 which is responsible for collecting appropriate data regarding theprocess or one or more associated performance metrics from variouscomputing devices 2242 utilized in the implementation of the process orused to store data involved with the implementation of the process. ETLcollector 2260 can send the data gathered at the corresponding entitylocation 2240 to the performance metric analysis system 2220 in responseto a request from the performance metric analysis system 2220.

Thus, performance metric analysis system 2220 can, based upon one ormore schedules, send out requests to each ETL collectors 2260 at each ofthe entity locations 2240 a, 2240 n and receive, in response, a set ofdata corresponding to that performance metric and that entity location2240 a, 2240 n collected over a certain time period. This data can bestored in data store 2222. Analytics can then be performed by theperformance metric analysis system 2220 using the data gathered from theentity locations 2240 a, 2240 n. The analytics performed by performancemetric analysis system 2220 can be determined, at least in part, by ausers interaction with an interface presented by performance metricanalysis system 2220 and the results of the analytic performed cansimilarly be displayed to a user through the provided interface.

Not all of the various entities depicted in topology 2000 are necessary,or even desired, in embodiments, and that certain of the functionalitydescribed with respect to the entities depicted in topology 2000 can becombined into a single entity or eliminated altogether. The topology2000 is therefore exemplary only and should in no way be taken asimposing any limitations on embodiments of the present invention.

Each of the above disclosed methods can be performed on multiplesystems. For example, the methods can include processing data streamsfrom a file system. The file system can be distributed, particularly forlarge data sets. A method can be partitioned in such a way, that it canperform the operations on a partition or subset of the data. Suchprocessing is particularly useful for unstructured data sources havinglarge file size. The results of such processes can be combined in such away that the result is identical to the method applied to a single datasource being combined of all of the partitioned data.

In different embodiments, any presently-disclosed apparatus (or anypresently disclosed computer product including a computer usable medium)can be configured or operative to any presently disclosed method ortechnique.

A computer program product, includes a computer usable medium having acomputer readable program code non-transitorily embodied therein, saidcomputer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement amethod as described above.

In the present disclosure, certain routines for calculating data ordisplaying data may be carried out ‘in accordance with’ a certainfactor—for example, influencer identifiers may be ordered or selected inaccordance with magnitudes of one or more deviations. When a routine iscarried out ‘in accordance with’ a certain factor or factors, theroutine can also be carried out in accordance with one or more‘additional factors’ or additional business rules (for example,displayed identifiers may be ordered both according to magnitudes ofdeviations as well as whether or not the influencer is designated as an‘external influencer’ or a ‘controllable influencer.’). In the presentdisclosure, the phrase ‘in accordance with’ (or ‘according to’) shouldbe interpreted as ‘at least in part in accordance with.’

As described above, “controllable influencers” and “actionableinfluencers” are analogous terms. In an example, an influencer can be abusiness input. For example, an influencer can be a measurable businessinput, such as a business input relating to an action, a businessfunction, or other business relevant data. A key performance indicatorcan be a business output, such as a measurable indication of performanceof a business function.

A continuous value control element is a control element that canrepresent many values within a range of values. An exemplary continuousvalue control element includes a slide element, a dial, direct inpute.g., (text input), keyboard input (e.g., up or down arrows), or acombination thereof. A binary value control element is a control elementthat can represent one of two states. An exemplary binary value controlelements includes a checkbox, toggle button, radio button, or anycombination thereof. Alternatively, a tri-state control element can beused in place of a binary value control element.

In a first aspect, a non-transitory storage medium includinginstructions operable to implement a method and the method of projectinga production characteristic includes receiving down well video imagedata depicting multiphase flow within a well, determining a flow ratedata of at least one phase of the multiphase flow based on the down wellvideo image data, and projecting the production characteristic based atleast in part on the determined flow rate using a well performancemodel.

In an example of the first aspect, the method further includes buildingthe well performance model based at least in part on the determined flowrate data.

In another example of the first aspect and the above examples,projecting the production characteristic include projecting a change inflow rate of the at least on phase.

In a further example of the first aspect and the above examples,projecting the production characteristic include projecting a change inflow rate of the at least on phase in response to a well treatment. Forexample, the well treatment includes fracking. In another example, thewell treatment includes reworking.

In an additional example of the first aspect and the above examples, theflow rate data includes an average ratio of a hydrocarbon phase relativeto one or more other phases of the multiphase flow.

In another example of the first aspect and the above examples, the flowrate data includes an average volume percent flow.

In a further example of the first aspect and the above examples, thedown well video image data includes video image data from a firstposition within the well and video image data from a second positionwithin the well.

In an additional example of the first aspect and the above examples,projecting the production characteristic includes projecting a change inflow rate data in response to treating the well.

In another example of the first aspect and the above examples, themethod further includes aggregating flow rate data from a number ofwells and building a field model. For example, the method can furtherinclude projecting a field production characteristic based at least onthe field model and the aggregated flow rate data.

Note that not all of the activities described above in the generaldescription or the examples are required, that a portion of a specificactivity may not be required, and that one or more further activitiesmay be performed in addition to those described. Still further, theorder in which activities are listed are not necessarily the order inwhich they are performed.

In the foregoing specification, the concepts have been described withreference to specific embodiments. However, one of ordinary skill in theart appreciates that various modifications and changes can be madewithout departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in theclaims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to beregarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and allsuch modifications are intended to be included within the scope ofinvention.

As used herein, the terms “comprises,” “comprising,” “includes,”“including,” “has,” “having” or any other variation thereof, areintended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process,method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of features is notnecessarily limited only to those features but may include otherfeatures not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method,article, or apparatus. Further, unless expressly stated to the contrary,“or” refers to an inclusive-or and not to an exclusive-or. For example,a condition A or B is satisfied by any one of the following: A is true(or present) and B is false (or not present), A is false (or notpresent) and B is true (or present), and both A and B are true (orpresent).

Also, the use of “a” or “an” are employed to describe elements andcomponents described herein. This is done merely for convenience and togive a general sense of the scope of the invention. This descriptionshould be read to include one or at least one and the singular alsoincludes the plural unless it is obvious that it is meant otherwise.

Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have beendescribed above with regard to specific embodiments. However, thebenefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any feature(s) that maycause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essentialfeature of any or all the claims.

After reading the specification, skilled artisans will appreciate thatcertain features are, for clarity, described herein in the context ofseparate embodiments, may also be provided in combination in a singleembodiment. Conversely, various features that are, for brevity,described in the context of a single embodiment, may also be providedseparately or in any subcombination. Further, references to valuesstated in ranges include each and every value within that range.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of projecting a productioncharacteristic, the method comprising: receiving down well video imagedata depicting multiphase flow within a well; determining a flow ratedata of at least one phase of the multiphase flow based on the down wellvideo image data; projecting the production characteristic based atleast in part on the determined flow rate using a well performancemodel; and aggregating flow rate data from a number of wells andbuilding a field model.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprisingbuilding the well performance model based at least in part on thedetermined flow rate data.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein projectingthe production characteristic includes projecting a change in flow rateof the at least on phase.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein projectingthe production characteristic include projecting a change in flow rateof the at least on phase in response to a well treatment.
 5. The methodof claim 4, wherein the well treatment includes fracking.
 6. The methodof claim 4, wherein the well treatment includes reworking.
 7. The methodof claim 1, wherein the flow rate data includes an average ratio of ahydrocarbon phase relative to one or more other phases of the multiphaseflow.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the flow rate data includes anaverage volume percent flow.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the downwell video image data includes video image data from a first positionwithin the well and video image data from a second position within thewell.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein projecting the productioncharacteristic includes projecting a change in flow rate data inresponse to treating the well.
 11. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising projecting a field production characteristic based at leaston the field model and the aggregated flow rate data.
 12. Anon-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising instructionsoperable by a processor to implement a method of projection a productioncharacteristic, the method comprising: receiving down well video imagedata depicting multiphase flow within a well; determining a flow ratedata of at least one phase of the multiphase flow based on the down wellvideo image data; projecting the production characteristic based atleast in part on the determined flow rate using a well performancemodel; and aggregating flow rate data from a number of wells andbuilding a field model.
 13. The storage medium of claim 12, wherein themethod further comprises building the well performance model based atleast in part on the determined flow rate data.
 14. The storage mediumof claim 12, wherein projecting the production characteristic includesprojecting a change in flow rate of the at least on phase.
 15. Thestorage medium of claim 12, wherein projecting the productioncharacteristic include projecting a change in flow rate of the at leaston phase in response to a well treatment.
 16. The storage medium ofclaim 15, wherein the well treatment includes fracking.
 17. The storagemedium of claim 15, wherein the well treatment includes reworking. 18.The storage medium of claim 12, wherein the flow rate data includes anaverage ratio of a hydrocarbon phase relative to one or more otherphases of the multiphase flow.
 19. The storage medium of claim 12,wherein the flow rate data includes an average volume percent flow.